Not good, not good at all. What were five warriors and a translator going to do against a metal-clad ship with an Armstrong cannon, it was suicide with a capital "S". And to top it all off, they were just a few feet out of range. "That bastard…" Sanosuke cursed, and was held back by Algren.
"Hold your horses, kid," the American said, "They'll be plenty of time to go after him." Sanosuke was young and hot-headed, and that was his greatest weakness as well his greatest strength. However, the expression on his wife's face told him otherwise. In times like these, it was best to leave him be with Graham, and to "wing it". While Sanosuke was still busy cursing around, he, Kenshin, Miryu and Saito had leapt off the docks and swam towards the ship, using the wooden debris around it to propel themselves upwards from four fronts: Saito and Kenshin from the left and right, Miryu from the front, and Algren from behind.
Quickly, they started to fight towards the middle of the deck, making sure that they used as many generic attacks as possible without revealing whatever techniques they had in their arsenal. "The four of you are indeed foolhardy," Hiryuko proclaimed, leaning her katana against her shoulder. "You are venturing into the proverbial lion's den, and yet you show no fear…"
Miryu looked at her kinswoman and spat. "Nagasaki Hiryuko, I should have known that you were with Shishio…" She had little dealings with the gaijin-looking woman, but she was known to be a rather radical proponent of the Ishin-Ishishi, and had been one that despised all ways of the West, deeming them "impure" and "degrading" to the teachings of old, although she still fought for the Ishin-Ishishi. If Tsubasa Battouryu had been notorious for turning down the Emperor's hand in marriage, she had been infamous for completely denouncing her former allies when they started to deal with Westerners to secure their victory, going rogue at the height of the Bakamatsu.
"You know her?" Algren asked Miryu, looking at the woman now standing beside Shishio. He could see the family resemblance, though. Both women were tall and had the same sapphire eyes and shapely voluptuous figures and preferences for leather body-suits in combat.
Miryu nodded, and said, "She is a Ryujou as well, the cousin of my mother, and a rogue warrior."
Those words made Shishio laugh. "Oh yes, how can we forget, the great Algren Battouryu is a daughter of the samurai through and through?" he asked, "nevertheless, I welcome you to the duel of death, or so I would like to say. But that would be naïve." He looked towards Sanosuke, the young street-fighter dashing towards them through the debris on the water. "You think that you can see through my plans, but I know that you are only decoys. Fire the Gatling guns at the boy!"
Soon enough, the familiar sounds of endless rains of bullets could be heard, aimed towards Sanosuke. However, the boy stopped in his tracks and punched the water, causing a powerful spray of water to tower above him, acting as a shield against the bullets of the Gatling guns.
"That's Anji's Futae-No-Kiwami!" Houji exclaimed while Saito, Kenshin, Miryu and Algren looked on. Indeed, Sanosuke does have his shining moments.
"He is no mere street-fighter!" Shishio cursed behind gritted teeth, not expecting what the youth would do next. Summoning all his strength, Sanosuke threw the grenades in his hands towards the hull of the ship, grenades given to him by his journalist friend in Tokyo.
Saito smirked. Finally, things were going their way. The ship had exploded, throwing most onboard off balance, and no doubt the ship's crew would be running about in panic. "Heh, turns out it was a rust-bucket after all," he commented, still looking at Shishio and Hiryuko. "I would think that you two are running out of ideas."
Hiryuko harrumphed. "I would suspect that you are too scared to face us if you do not attack any sooner!" she exclaimed, unsheathing her katana, causing Kenshin and Miryu to get into their stances. As the seconds passed, she could hear damage reports from every corner of the ship… It was a frightful defeat indeed, but all was not lost. Leaping towards the four of them, she started the attack. Shishio would have to weasel their way out of their mess, and she would have to divert their attentions.
"After all we have done to arm this ship…" Houji said, after receiving a report that they had to evacuate immediately. "Everything we did…"
Shishio looked at the fight that was going on between Hiryuko and their enemies and at Sanosuke, who was swimming towards them at top speed. "Not only the boy. Battouryu and Algren have political allies, while Saito had the intelligence of the police, and Himura saw through my plans. The greatest mistake here is that we have underestimated them!"
Algren had not seen such ferocity, but he knew that it was only a farce, only a mask. This Nagasaki Hiryuko woman fought with great skill, it was undeniable, but she was rather too set in her ways that it was utterly predictable. Although they had not delved into the techniques of each their styles, it could be seen that she was educated in the same manner as Kenshin and Miryu were, taking advantage of the confusion of the enemy in elaborate attacks to deliver more blunt and feral ones: In short, the groundwork of Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryuu.
He could see that she was not aiming at Saito or Kenshin at all, but at Miryu, her cousin. Every single attack was directed towards her, as if she had a grudge on Miryu for some reason. The two women started to wage war against one another as the ship started to capsize. "Miryu, break it off!" Saito called towards her while the ship started to shake violently.
Miryu looked towards Saito and shouted, "I will if she does!" Knocking the other woman with the end of her katana's handle, she propelled Hiryuko towards the other side of the ship while turning to face Shishio. "I don't know what you have exchanged with Hiryuko, but I will not allow you to taint my House ever again!"
"My dear, it seems the two of you have the same point of view," Shishio replied, chuckling as Hiryuko was recovering from Miryu's attack. "But we would have to continue our fight in another time and place… Seek us out at our headquarters, your best against mine and myself, and I promise all of you that there will be no carelessness on my part."
"Feh," Saito replied, "You seem to have no guts at all to face us…" Time and time again, Shishio Makoto has proven himself to be little more than a coward, evading battle for the second time already. They could have finished it then and there, but Shishio once again changed the venue.
Hiryuko rose and held herself against the railing. "Seek out our headquarters, Rokutsurane Torii Hokora on the northern face of Mt. Hiei," she said, approaching the four of them, before casting a poisonous glances towards Algren and Miryu. Her next movement was completely unanticipated, executed in total secrecy. With a dagger she had kept concealed, she made to stab Miryu in the heart from behind, but Algren saw it, quickly shielded her body with his. Thanks to his quick thinking, she narrowly missed any of his vital organs.
"Nathan!" Miryu shouted, and immediately caught her husband as he collapsed. "You cold-blooded witch, he has no part in any of this!" She could feel his blood started to pour from his wound, and quickly pulled off the dagger, hurling it back to her cousin's thigh while Kenshin tore off strips of his hakama to bind the injury.
"This will ensure that no gaijin will ever pollute the sacred pact of battle between the two of us, Tsubasa Miryu." Hiryuko replied coldly, removing her weapon without so much as gritting her teeth. "You have gone soft, too soft. The mothers of our past would spit on my soul if I had allowed you to live under such disgrace! Think of it as a chance to cast yourself free from such gaijin filth!"
There was no time, they, too had to get off the ship, but with the sea-water, it seemed ultimately difficult without causing Algren more pain. "Just go without me," he told her, wincing as the fire of his injury started to course throughout his body. He would not be a burden to them. "Miryu…" he called, and his wife held his hand in hers. "You'll do fine without me."
"Shut up you idiot!" she scolded before looking at Saito and Kenshin for ideas. By then, Shishio and his retinue had already left with all the emergency life-boats. "I won't leave you to die here, of all places!" She had been assigned to protect him by the Emperor, and she would never forgive herself if he had perished to protect her.
Thankfully, help came at the right moment. Graham had rowed a boat towards the sinking ship just in time, and hurriedly they made their escape. "It's a good thing I found this, you know," the Englishman said, before seeing Algren injured. "By Jove, we'd better get help, quick!"
"I'm fine," Algren wheezed before Miryu tried to silence him in vain. "Kenshin, tell Graham that I'm fine…"
Kenshin just shook his head. "Sessha has seen many stubborn men, but you, Algren-dono, are the most stubborn… However, you might have just saved Miryu's life, and I thank you." The American was madly in love with Miryu, and given his past performance, it was just the sort of thing that he knew that Algren would just do for the beautiful warrior that was his wife.
"Ahou," Saito said, "You could have died there and I would have to find another suitor for Miryu, which she would castrate within seconds. You would be giving me a lot of trouble." He was given the task to row the boat with Graham, an unspoken request that he readily took upon himself.
It would be an honest attempt on Algren's part to try to laugh that Saito's snide remark, but he ended up coughing, causing Miryu to glare at him. "Saito, please," she pleaded, before going back to nursing her husband's wound as best she could at the moment. Come to think of it, of all the times that he had to be almost mortally wounded, there was no alcohol about to stop any possible infection; even Sake would do the trick. For one thing, he had been an alcoholic and she had been hand-raised by Hiko Seijurou. It was a downright embarrassment for a woman in her station.
"Shishio Makoto, you will not escape!"
The melancholy of the moment was somehow broken by Sanosuke, who had jumped onto their boat, hoping to find the villain. "Sano…" Kenshin said, pointing towards the opposite direction. He was able to manage to stop the young man from causing a fuss by rocking the ship too much as he hurled unheard protests of dissatisfaction towards the cancellation of the fight against Shishio and his forces, just before Sanosuke aggravated Algren's wound even more. "Sano, please, Algren-dono is badly injured."
"Heh, Shishio just got lucky," Sanosuke mumbled before checking on Algren. However foolish he might have sounded, it could not be denied that without Sanosuke's help, things could have been for the worse. A battle to the end aboard a heavily armed ship that did not belong to them awfully tipped the scales in the favor of their enemies, however honorable and noble Shishio was. Hiryuko, on the other hand, would have to rethink her strategies when trying to prune her family tree.
The two of them had learnt their lesson: no rival or opponent was not to be underestimated. Kenshin had gained his strength from those whom they protected, while Saito never once lost his edge to align himself with the power of the day. Miryu, although rather domesticated, was still as vicious as she had been, and Algren, the gaijin was a force to be reckoned with, along with Sanosuke, who seemed to be the most inexperienced of the lot.
"You know there is one thing about that foolish American," Yumi said to Shishio and Hiryuko. "He seems to be able to go to great lengths for Battouryu. One might say that he truly loves her."
Chuckling, Shishio held his woman closer to him. "Of course, darling, it is highly evident. Miryu is a woman that many men have died for during the Bakamatsu, and she has not lost her charm. However, he is only but one of the unworthy suitors after her heart, and one day, she would see that we hold much more promise than that upstart American soldier." In his burning eyes, he envisioned killing Battousai and Algren and claiming the title of the strongest as well as the rule of Japan, with Yumi and Miryu by his side. "That day will come soon enough."
HAN: I'm finally back, WOOHOO! Granted, it has been a long, long time since I have posted anything, due to my final exams, and it got me a long time to get started, mainly because I have completely lost touch with Tom Cruise's voice, antics, etc, until I watched Knight and Day just this afternoon, ehehehehe. ^.^ So I hope that you enjoy this post and I shall be back for more!